AIBU to ask why The Gruffalo is so very popular?

[octaviarose]

I don't really understand why the Gruffalo is so very popular as a children's book, please someone explain the enormous appeal.

Monkey Puzzle is wonderful, I cried at the end
Charlie Cooks Favourite Book is also a favourite of mine
We always give JD books as birthday presents, so much nicer than the plastic tat everyone else gets.

Mountains, I think the trick of the book is that it can appeal to a wider age-range, including the adults that will repeat the story endlessly. My nephew who is now 8yo grew up with the story and still reads it himself; he fully understands the trick and loves it! (Maybe because he is a bit small for his age and a bit geeky and has had some problems at school with some of the bigger lads in his class)

YY, what HazyJane said - the story "works" because it's based on folk stories of made up creatures that turn out to be real

And the rhyme is good, lots of different voices to do, and the pictures are fab

monkey puzzle is lovely too.
the butterflies text goes well with the melody of 'rockabye baby'.

I love the Gruffalo and the Gruffalo's child but think that in some of JD's other books the rhyming feels very forced and therefore the writing isn't that great. I think I'm thinking about the Stickman?
Some are brilliant though (Snale and the Whale)

mixed up my lullabies.
monkey puzzle='hush little baby'

Back to the very hungry catterpillar - that is another one of my sons favourites, it's a lovely simple story and he finds it hysterical for some reason. He loves to count the fruit and 'read' it with me

Because the simple rhythm of the poetry draws very young children in, it's easy for adults to read and repeat, its memorable and it's a nice introduction to stories for even the least literary of parents to show their kids.

DS has moved on to What the Ladybird Heard which I am quite pleased with as the audio of Alexander Armstrong singing 'the cow said moo and the hen said cluck' is quite something to listen to...

DS loved Room on the Broom and Tiddler

However, I also loved 'A squash and a squeeze' (very like our house)

We love the gruffalo in this house, and most of the others. I had to read the smartest giant every night for a year and half, no exaggeration, but the highway rat is not popular at all.

My kids love "An Gruffalo" in Gaelic!

I run a mum & babies reading group. It almost always comes top of fave books at the end of the year! might be cos I enthusiastically cut up a copy and made stick puppets of the main characters!

I love Stickman, The Highway Rat is dc1's current bedtime favourite.

Snail and the Whale is my fave though. I actually cried at the end the first time I read it!!

The gruffalos child cartoon on Christmas Day last year made us all misty. It was lovely.

Well for some reason it spoils it for me, to not be able to chat about the story, and to be met with little blank stares when I try to explain it; My kids looooved it and i read it hundreds of time, but always with a sense that it wasn't right!

That bloody song in The Smartest Giant in Town, I'm sure I must hold the award for most tuneless, melody changes from reading to reading rendition.

"And she gazed at the sky, the sea, the land

The waves and the caves and the golden sand,

She gazed and gazed, amazed by it all,

And she said to the whale, "I feel so small."

Oh I think I'm going to have to get snale and whale one for DD for Xmas. We love the Gruffalo and Gruffalos child. Another favourite is Stickman, if u haven't got it then I highly recommend.

Thank fuck someone else doesn't get the hungry caterpillar. Caterpillar makes a pig of himself. Big deal. I can't bear it!

Yanbu. It doesn't move me at all!

Monkey Puzzle is my favourite JD book.

I hate The Tiger Who Came To Tea.

Oh yes, Stick Man and Monkey Puzzle are both lovely